In connection with many product display systems, for the display and presentation of product items on store shelves, it is beneficial to position the product items neatly in line and close to the front of the shelving, for easy viewing and retrieval by the customer. To this end, it is a well known practice to install pusher devices on display shelving, arranged by spring action to constantly urge a line of product items toward the front of the shelf. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,855,281, 5,012,936 and 4,303,162 are representative of many proposals for this purpose.
A simple and well known type of product pusher utilizes a guide track member and a pusher sled movable along the guide track. A flat strip coil spring is associated with the sled and serves constantly to urge the sled in a direction toward the front of the guide track. A line of product items positioned in front of the sled will be constantly urged toward the front by reason of the spring action on the sled. A fixed stop at the front of the shelf positions the frontmost product item.
Product pushers of the type described in the preceding paragraph are, in general, well known and widely used. The manufacture of such product pushers, however, is more costly than desired, because of handwork involved in the overall assembly of the device.
The present invention is directed to the provision of a product pusher system along the lines described above which is significantly more advantageous than known devices in that the operations involved in its assembly are greatly simplified and expedited, resulting in significant labor savings in the assembly operations and enabling the new device to be produced at significantly lower cost.
In the assembly of conventional product pushers of the type involved herein, the pusher sled is provided with a chamber, open at the back but otherwise enclosed, for the reception of a coiled strip spring. A narrow slot is formed in the lower front wall portion of the sled through which the outer convolution of the spring is projected. The end extremity of the spring is provided with an offset portion, which is arranged to be inserted through a vertical slot in the guide track to form an anchor for the end extremity of the spring. When assembling the system, the sled is applied to the guide track by applying it over the rearwardmost end of the guide track and sliding it to a front position. The coiled strip spring is then inserted into the open back of the spring chamber provided on the sled, with the assembler manipulating the end extremity of the spring so that it is inserted into and extended through the slot in the lower portion of the sled. The assembler then grips the projecting end extremity of the spring strip with a suitable tool such as pliers, and distorts it as necessary to insert the end downward into the anchor slot in the guide track. Particularly, this last operation requires some strength and dexterity and is a relatively time consuming assembly operation.
Pursuant to the present invention, the design of the sled and guide strip is such that the coiled strip spring may be manipulated entirely independently of the sled, in order to insert the end extremity of the spring into an anchor slot at the front of the guide track. That is a rapid and simple operation, requiring no tools or any special dexterity, since the entire spring may be tilted and manipulated to insert the end through the anchor slot, after which the spring can simply be allowed to fall back on to the surface of the guide track. The pusher sled of the new design is constructed with a spring housing which is completely open along the bottom, and is provided with a front opening for the spring, which is in the form of a downwardly opening notch, rather than a slot. Thus, after the spring has been anchored on the guide strip, the sled may be simply lowered over the top of the spring. Engagement of the sled with the guide track is effected by inclined entry surfaces along the bottom of the sled, which are forced apart as the sled is pressed downwardly, and snapped over the opposite side edges of the guide track to complete the assembly. The entire operation is significantly faster to complete than the conventional series of assembly operations.
In the device of the invention, the guide strip is formed with stop means at both ends for limiting the extreme forward and extreme rearward movements of the sled. In conventional designs, in which the sled is applied over the back end of the guide strip, it is possible to pull the spring-loaded sled off of the back of the guide strip enabling it to snap forwardly in an uncontrolled manner, with possible injury.
For a more complete understanding of the above and other features and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, and to the accompanying drawings.